Don1

Ive noticed how trucks seems to veer slightly toward you, and then move away from the yellow lines again once they past you - Also noticed how an offroad route I rode to work in the morning was fenced up and blocked by the time I returned in the evening.

Goodluck with that. Ive been riding specialized since I started MTB. I am going to switch brands now, sick of crappy service and no stock of what you want ...ever. My s-works 29er hardtail frame (2010) size medium will be on sale soon, just waiting for lbs to strip the parts. R22 000 , I know you mentioned a full sus but he can PM me for more details should he be interested. Best bet atm is to buy the frame you want through a friend or contact in USA, its cheaper and chances are they have exactly what he is looking for.

I hear, understand and agree with the comments about poor organisation...to some extent (with regards to publicity, notifictions and advertising), however people this is not Australia, this is Africa. Its a bit like organising a game of cricket in Baghdad. Everyone knew and had the feeling in thier gut that this was going to be disastrous, or at the very least that it would have some major "embarrasing" moments . Anyone still even riding a road bike in Africa, is bit like that cricketer in Baghdad. Intentions are good and sounds nice, but its an event and an organisiation project that has some mighty odds stacked up against it. The roads are not condusive to road riding in SA, the larger public and road users DONT WANT YOU on the roads, let alone be held up by you. MTB events like Epic are world class and will remain the world class premier event it is because it is OFF THE ROADS and away from the "people".

Thanks again guys for all the comments. I am however oh so fickle! When I started the thread I was leaning toward Tallboy, but oppertunity lead me astray again.. I heard mtbvip comments on the thoroughbred animal the S-works is, and also considered what jayz said about 29ers - fs vs hardtail. The result is this beaut! I have changed her slightly, added the rotor rings, changed the fork compression damper to remote, changed grips and tyres. 9.8kg I did Vori-berg with her last week and did some lo flying, what a ride, the climbs felt non existant, the decents fast and smooth. Cant wait to spend more time on her, which I will be doing next week at Harkerville and Knysna surrounds. (was loaded and ready for Babbas today, but those floods just wouldnt let up) So didnt quite get the "build" project i was looking for, but what the hell...Thanks for input will send 1 or 2 pics of her with better surrounds, from Harkerville.

Always unfortunately got to have some tjops who criticize everything. Great race. If you did it last year, you would appreciate all the improvements and changes this year. Many problems were encountered last year with bottlenecks and the infamous Jukskei sewege. Today, vastly improved - well done to the organisers for listening to our concerns of last year and making the event enjoyable. Good job.

Guys dont even consider this - you will lose your money. Specialized S -works epic 29er frame 2011 for USD 1500, delivered via UPS. I have been investigating this for the last month. I currently import parts from Shangai for other business (non cycling stuff) . I have a relationship with a long standing exporter and i trust them completely . I have liased with all the guys in China / Indonesia with regards to the s-works epic 29er frame. They all quote Escrow on thier sites, yet when it comes down to the nitty gritty, they all say "sorry we dont accept escrow currently". I then ask my contact to check out these companies on his side, I also advise the "sellers" that I am sending a local contact to verify my purchase before I make the transfer. The supplier goes dead, simply stops communicating and my contact gets back to me everytime saying the same thing " Dear Value customer an friend , I suggest you will take beeg risk and lose money, but I keep looking for you". Nothing. Apparantly a) you will be scammed and lose your money or b ) they will ship a frame and it will be a poor rip off of the s-works, it wont weigh the same, it wont have the stiffness you think your getting for an s-works and obviously the carbon used is not the same. So you will get something that looks like an s-works (nice paint job) - but you will only impress the untrained eye, you will know its fake, and end up tossing it in the back of the garage. Having said that - the only reason I started looking on Alibaba etc was because specialised SA service sucks!, The local (Pretoria) specialized stockers dont have stock...ever, and the ones that do have are 2010 Large only for like R36 000 (normal epic s-works, not even the 29er). So I contact Specialised South Africa to ask them if they can source me a small 2011 frame from else where. They dont even respond to my e-mails, they dont have telephone numers to contact them, its as if they are non existent. I currently ride an epic comp carbon (2010) and would like to upgrade. Perhaps I should upgrade to to another brand totally.

I own a business that supplies retractable security barriers and roller shutters throughout SA, Africa and Australasia where we make use of manual and robotic powder coating plants. Powercoating , if done correctly is very durable and if the raw material is submitted to efficient pre-treatement processes can last for many, many years. The powder supplier must be reputable and the powder used must be external (uv resistant) and will withstand anything the elements can throw at it. The colours available are as varied as any "plascon" type colour swatch you can find..and more with viens and hammertones for most colours. Yes the "microns" required might be a little thicker than required on some tolerances and yes the heat required (220+ deg c) to bake the parts might be too high for some sensative parts, but in general can be done and can bling your bike for relatively "cheap".

Thx Bos - 11.9kg can still tweek a bit, but ja powertap hub and some other parts are still a bit heavy!

My Beaut!

About the 705... mine worked great for 6 weeks then the cadence stopped displaying. Since the cadence and the rest of the sensors (excluding HRM) stem from the same little GSC10 sensor, and everything else works fine - it cant be the battery. NE1 have this type of fault before?

Seen alot of info on the web about the 94.7 MTB race on Saterday except starting times. Ne1 know where these starting times are posted?